As a soccer fan who also put sometimes the soccer shoes on, I was very happy as the club Sturm Graz of the austrian soccer league came to us for a extraordinary photoshooting. Many soccer clubs worldwide have the same simple autographycards. Mostly you can see a player in his dress on the playing field in the stadium. For the 100 years jubilee the team of Sturm Graz planed something completley different and so they came to me. Home of the Sturm Graz is since 1997 the UPC-Arena in the district Liebenau. The foundation as the soccer club "Sturm" for Graz was on March 31. 1912 in the hotel "Goldene Birn", at which the founders started with Mai 1. 1909 with the team the soccer games. So they celebrate in this year the 100 year jubilee. They had their biggest success with winning the austrian soccer mastership in the seasons 1997/98 and 1998/99. International publicity they became with the participation at the champions league in the seasons 1998/99, 1999/2000 and 2000/01, in which they won the groupphase.

At 7 am in the morning we, my team and I, started to drive to Graz. The city is about 200 km away from Vienna. There we arrived on time at 9 am. Instead my assistants build the set I made a tour through the stadium get inspired and take some ideas about how the shooting should look like. I like to photograph on the one side a team picture which looks different then they before. On the other side I like to do some pictures of the players in a new look. So I made a mix between studio, stadium and audienceranks. I put the players there were they normaly only see their fans at the audienceranks. They pictures should stay for everything you could see in a soccer season safty, ambition, fighting spirit and advantage and also the predominance to the other team. So I started to work. At the studioshootings I put a mainlight through a softbox from the left. A spot directly behind of the player on the background and to pointed lights on the player himself. Outdoor I work with california sunbounce and 2 more flashlights. I hope that all fans, players and functionarys are happy with the result and that it helps to win the masterchip ;-)

 

At the next time I will tell you about my photoshooting with the comedian Michael Mittermeier, who support me with the charity project "Gorillas in Rwanda".

 

See you soon

Yours Manfred